But I didn't know that Magnus was out there waiting and I had spent a happy weekend 'making things' because Port Eliot Festival is on the horizon, I have a great line-up of authors coming to the tent so we have knitsuke and quiltsuke to prepare, which has all involved the customary takeover of the kitchen table.

Please don't ask what any of it is...it's supposed to be a secret and a surprise so I know you won't tell anyone and all will be revealed soon.

But in the process I had walked miles finding the right ingredients all scattered far and wide around the house, in cupboards and drawers and boxes so I decided it was time to gather everything into one place again... my mum's treasured Singer sewing machine cabinet, the Bernina, the books, the cutting mats, the rulers, the threads, and there with the kitchen table at my right hand what more could I need for this lovely summer of creativity I have planned.

Well actually I needed a design wall, that's what. So two hours and one trip into town later I had sourced two meters of cream fleece in Tavistock Market and between us Bookhound and I then figured a way of hanging it without too much bother.

'I think I need an old curtain pole...'

'They are up in the shed and it's pouring with rain...'

Fifteen minutes later I have stitched a hanging hem on the fleece...

'Yes...a curtain pole would be just perfect...'

'That wall is solid granite and the drills are up in the shed too and it's raining even more now...'

'We wouldn't need to drill the wall or anything...'

Eventually using said curtain pole and a Heath-Robinson system of cup hooks and screws and string we have avoided drilling the wall and the fleece is up behind the sewing machine, and I start unearthing ancient unfinished bits alongside new things and pressing them on the wall. This bit always reminds me of Fuzzy Felt and those felt story boards at Sunday School.Perfect because now I have all Works in Progress staring me in the face rather than tucked away in cupboards, so no excuses not to finally do something with that Mariner's Compass or those black and white blocks made for a wall hanging to be entitled Multi-Media, supposedly a sample of different types of patchwork.

It was all started as a gift to congratulate Offspringette on her graduation with a First in Film & Media from Stirling University, and if I tell you that was ...er nine years ago and since then she's been through a traineeship with and worked for the BBC, done half a Maritime Studies degree, a PGCE, half a Masters Degree which she is about to complete, spent a year in Christchurch, New Zealand living with earthquakes, done six months of gruelling supply teaching around just about every secondary school in Plymouth City and now starts her first proper teaching job on Monday at the school she has loved the most (hooray) ... well I am a few congratulations behind the times. She will actually be teaching English and History as well as taking on responsibility for implementing the innovative use of media in the classroom across the whole school, and I'm sure won't mind me saying that she is brilliant in the classroom, has found her niche and we are all very proud of everything she continues to achieve.... so good luck for Monday Offspringette xAnd the minute that kitten scales that design wall he's in very big trouble...saint or not.

But I didn't know that Magnus was out there waiting and I had spent a happy weekend 'making things' because Port Eliot Festival is on the horizon, I have a great line-up of authors coming to the tent so we have knitsuke and quiltsuke to prepare, which has all involved the customary takeover of the kitchen table.

Please don't ask what any of it is...it's supposed to be a secret and a surprise so I know you won't tell anyone and all will be revealed soon.

But in the process I had walked miles finding the right ingredients all scattered far and wide around the house, in cupboards and drawers and boxes so I decided it was time to gather everything into one place again... my mum's treasured Singer sewing machine cabinet, the Bernina, the books, the cutting mats, the rulers, the threads, and there with the kitchen table at my right hand what more could I need for this lovely summer of creativity I have planned.

Well actually I needed a design wall, that's what. So two hours and one trip into town later I had sourced two meters of cream fleece in Tavistock Market and between us Bookhound and I then figured a way of hanging it without too much bother.

'I think I need an old curtain pole...'

'They are up in the shed and it's pouring with rain...'

Fifteen minutes later I have stitched a hanging hem on the fleece...

'Yes...a curtain pole would be just perfect...'

'That wall is solid granite and the drills are up in the shed too and it's raining even more now...'

'We wouldn't need to drill the wall or anything...'

Eventually using said curtain pole and a Heath-Robinson system of cup hooks and screws and string we have avoided drilling the wall and the fleece is up behind the sewing machine, and I start unearthing ancient unfinished bits alongside new things and pressing them on the wall. This bit always reminds me of Fuzzy Felt and those felt story boards at Sunday School.Perfect because now I have all Works in Progress staring me in the face rather than tucked away in cupboards, so no excuses not to finally do something with that Mariner's Compass or those black and white blocks made for a wall hanging to be entitled Multi-Media, supposedly a sample of different types of patchwork.

It was all started as a gift to congratulate Offspringette on her graduation with a First in Film & Media from Stirling University, and if I tell you that was ...er nine years ago and since then she's been through a traineeship with and worked for the BBC, done half a Maritime Studies degree, a PGCE, half a Masters Degree which she is about to complete, spent a year in Christchurch, New Zealand living with earthquakes, done six months of gruelling supply teaching around just about every secondary school in Plymouth City and now starts her first proper teaching job on Monday at the school she has loved the most (hooray) ... well I am a few congratulations behind the times. She will actually be teaching English and History as well as taking on responsibility for implementing the innovative use of media in the classroom across the whole school, and I'm sure won't mind me saying that she is brilliant in the classroom, has found her niche and we are all very proud of everything she continues to achieve.... so good luck for Monday Offspringette xAnd the minute that kitten scales that design wall he's in very big trouble...saint or not.

Constants...

Team Tolstoy

Team TolstoyA year-long shared read of War & Peace through the centenary year of Count Lyev Nikolayevich Tolstoy's death, starting on his birthday, September 9th 2010.
Everyone is welcome to board the troika and read along, meeting here on the 9th of every month to chat in comments about the book.

Team Tolstoy BookmarkDon't know your Bolkonskys from your Rostovs?
An aide memoire that can be niftily printed and laminated into a double-sided bookmark.

Port Eliot Festival

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